USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V. 2 > Part 12
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William Watson's son, William, was a soldier in the War of 1812. He was father of the late Thomas Watson, for many years Justice of the Peace and father of John W. Watson, Circuit Clerk at this time. William Watson, Jr., had a son, Rawley, who was born June 5th, 1809, on the old homestead, and died at the home of his son James F. Watson, April 25, 1889. He married Miss Sarah Ann Whip of Loudoun county, Virginia, who bore him nine children, who in order of their ages are: Mrs. William F. Menear, of Kingwood; Sanford, of Valley District; George W., of Kingwood District; Daniel G., of Reedsville, and Mack, of Masontown; Edmund H., who lives in Barbour county ; Orval and Mason of Reedsville, and James Flanagan of the Valley.
Rawley Watson is spoken of as a good, kind-hearted, genial and honest man, a good citizen, and was well and most favorably known. He was a member of the Methodist Church. Although often asked to take office he never would accept one. Sanford Watson, a man much like his father, a genial, kind-hearted and honest man, was born on the old homestead farm, April 26, 1841. He was raised a farmer, and although a leading citizen and a very popular man, he would never accept a public office, but confined his attention to farming and stock raising of which he has made' a success. He erected a large and com- modious barn and other buildings, and deals somewhat extensively in all kinds of blooded stock. His house was built in 1873.
At the breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Watson responded to the call of his country by enlisting in the Third West Virginia Infantry.
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His first service was in the engagement with the Confederates at Philippi, West Virginia. His regiment was then mounted, and there- after known as the Sixth West Virginia Cavalry. In all he served three years, entering his regiment as Corporal of Company C, and mustered out as Sergeant of the Company.
On November 14, 1867, Mr. Watson was united in marriage to Miss Kate Hartley of Masontown. The children of this union were: (1). Lloyd Watson, who was born January 25, 1868, is now employed by the Government as a surveyor in Montana. (2) Callie, born September 10, 1867, married to Robert B. Brown, a carpenter of Masontown. (3) Walter B., a merchant in Masontown, born August, 1871. (4) Ernest, born May 31, 1876. He is a farmer and was married to Jessie Robey and lives on the old homestead. Their children are Glenn and Catherine. (5) Olive, born October 14, 1878. She married Harry Poland, October 2, 1908, and is the mother of two children, Lois and Thurston. (6) Lulu, born December 30, 1880, was married to James C. Gibson, Sep- tember 14, 1906. Mr. Gibson is a lumber merchant. Their child is named Mary Cramer Virginia Gibson.
THE WILLIAM WATSON FAMILY.
William Scott Watson was born April IIth, 1820, on what has always been known as the old Watson farm, and on which he with a large number of brothers and sisters were reared, (see names of others elsewhere). He was a soldier of the late Civil War, a member of Company K, Third Maryland Regiment. He enlisted in the spring of 1863, and was mustered out on May 27, 1865. On December 12th, 1844, he was united in marriage to Miss Julia Mckinney. To this union were born two children, Edwin M. Watson, born June 14th, 1846, and Joseph S. Watson, born March 29th, 1848. Death visited this home first on April 19th, 1849, taking the wife and mother of the above named children. Mr. Watson remained a widower until 1853 when on July 18, of that year he was again united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Huggins, youngest daughter of John and Mary Huggins. She was born July, 1835, and died March 15, 1891. To this union nine children were born as follows: Terresa Ellen, born May 7, 1854, mar- ried to Thomas B. Riley of Tunnelton, W. Va .; William A. Watson, born February 4th, 1856, married to Nancy Jane Sinclair, daughter of
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DAVID E. WATSON.
IC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOY TILDEN FOUND . TIONS
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Robert and Jane Sinclair, of Sinclair, W. Va. Their children are Dr. Elmer E. Watson, of Albright, W. Va., Ernest W. Watson, Ass't. Cashier of the Tunnelton Bank, Tunnelton, W. Va., Alonzo Bedford, who died at the age of three and one-half years. Sinclair Watson died in infancy. Ila Grace, wife of Dr. W. W. Bucklew, of Fellowsville, W. Va., and William J., associated with his father in the mercantile business at Tunnelton, W. Va; Clarissa Ione, born March 22nd, 1858, wife of George H. Rodeheaver, of near Lenox, W. Va .; Mary Anne, married (first husband), Daniel Miller (second husband), - -. She was born July 7, 1860. Harriet Melissa, born July 30th, 1862, wife of Ira Travis, of Buckhannon, W. Va. Julietta, born December 16th, 1865, died May 28th, 1872. Ulysses Grant, was born March 29, 1868, married Priscilla Herring of near Herring, W. Va., and a half sister of Geo. A. Herring, of Kingwood, W. Va. David E. Watson, born September 27th, 1870, whose sketch appears elsewhere; James Schnoble, born July 2nd, 1872, died March 3rd, 1910, from injuries received from being struck with a fast train and knocked from the Benwood bridge near Wheeling, W. Va. He was hurled a distance of about fifty feet to the ground, sustaining a fractured skull and internal injuries. He was taken at once to the City Hospital at Wheeling, and all the medical aid possible summoned, but his injuries were considered fatal from the beginning and he died in a few days, being unconscious most all of the time. He had been in the employ of the B. & O. R. R. Co., for a number of years and had worked himself up to a good position, being foreman of a carpenter crew. While yet a very young man, he had been given charge of some very difficult jobs in which he at all times proved himself equal to the task. He was held in high esteem not only by the officials of the Baltimore & Ohio Company, but by every man that worked under him, the latter coming in a body from Wheeling to Masontown, to attend his funeral.
DAVID ELLSWORTH WATSON.
The subject of this sketch, merchant and former postmaster of Tunnelton, W. Va., is a descendant of one of the oldest families of Preston county. He was born September 27th, 1870, in a one room old fashioned round log cabin on what has been generally known as the old Barker farm, back on the hills of the old "Winding Cheat,"
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in Valley district. His parents moved from here when he was about two years old, to a small farm near the North Union School house. Here they lived in an up-to-date hewed log house, having one large room below and a half-story above. The only means of reaching what was then called the loft was by climbing the old style straight ladder. It was here that the large family of children slept on their beds of straw.
Early in life the subject of this sketch had become ambitious for an education and preparation for business; and many and fanciful were his plans for a future life in the business world. But because of the fact that his parents were very poor and by the time that the younger children of the family had reached the age that they should have been in school the father and mother were both failing in health with the rapid advance of age, consequently he was deprived of at least a com- mon school education.
But such misfortunes as those do not necessarily need to be an absolute barrier in the way of any young man gaining success. So very early in life we find this young man availing himself of every opportunity of learning everything possible in regard to the mercantile business, first by doing chores of whatever kind he could get to do for the proprietor of the little country store near where his father then lived, and where George A. Herring, now one of the leading merchants of Kingwood, W. Va., first permitted him to stand behind the counter in his little store at Herring. Here he tore calico and weighed sugar, and was a mighty proud lad indeed.
In the year 1888, he was employed as clerk by his brother, William A. Watson, (now of Tunnelton,) but who then lived at and conducted an extensive mercantile business at Fellowsville, W. Va. He remained in the employ of his brother for five years, where with the help of him and the actual experience that he got, he was able to procure a pretty thorough knowledge of the mercantile business.
In the spring of 1894, he went to Indiana, where he worked on a farm during that summer. In the fall of that same year he went to Illinois, first working on a farm, later securing a clerkship in the store of J. P. Wolford, of Galton, Ill. He remained here and in possession of this job until the spring of 1899, when he returned to his native State. On September 27th, of that same year he was united in marriage to Mattie Frances Hanway, daughter of S. H. and Elizabeth (Poulson) Hanway of near Evansville, W. Va. Immediately after their marriage
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(omitting the honeymoon trip) they took up their residence in Tunnel- ton, and as Mr. Watson now jokingly puts it, with two hundred dollars borrowed money and his newly wedded wife he made his first personal business venture. Beginning as he did at that time without any money of his own, and in the midst of strong opposition, it was neces- sary for him to keep everlastingly at it, and by so doing he has made his mark in the business world, and while not yet having reached the height of his ambition he certainly deserves great credit for the advance- ment he has made. However, he modestly admits that he should not take upon himself all of the credit for their success for he attributes a great deal of their success to the help rendered by his splendid wife, who has not only been as energetic, but always as willing to make personal sacrifice when necessary (and which has been quite often) in order to help tide over a season of hard times or financial losses that have come quite often during the fifteen years of their married life. Aside from the two stores that he now owns in Tunnelton, Mr. Watson has also accumulated considerable real estate in Tunnelton, and elsewhere in the county, as well as being interested in several banks.
In 1910 Mr. Watson was appointed postmaster at Tunnelton, serv- ing a term of four years. For a number of years he has been very active in politics, but he has never asked for any political office at the hands of the people, being satisfied to work for his friends without any promise of recompense, and while he enjoys to the fullest extent a hard political scrap he has always adhered to the rule that politics should be kept as clean as your individual business, hence those to whom he was opposed, as well as those for whom he might be working, always knew just where he stood at all times.
It has been his one desire, as regarding both business and politics, to build for himself a character rather than a reputation.
DANIEL G. WATSON.
Daniel G. Watson, son of Rawley Watson, and president of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, of Reedsville, was born June 12, 1847, on the old home farm near Masontown. He was educated in the district schools of his native town, also in Morgantown, Kingwoud, and sub- sequently Smithfield, Fayette county, Pa. When fourteen years of age he left Masontown for Morgantown, then a noted seat of learning,
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where he spent four years in school and learning the trade of a cabinet maker. When seventeen years of age, he taught school one term, having just come from the old Academy of Kingwood in 1865, and in 1868, he left the Academy of Kingwood in 1865 and in 1868 he left the Academy at Smithfield, Pa., well qualified for the work of a teacher. He taught school thirteen years afterward. Mr. Watson tried hard to enlist in the army at one time, but because of his youth the military authorities refused his services without the consent of his parents, which could not be obtained. As a teacher Mr. Watson made an excel- lent record, and has subsequently been of great service to the cause of education as a member of the board of education of Valley district for many terms, being now a member-because of that long experience in practical school work.
Mr. Watson was married May 24, 1877, to Emma Ray Fairfax, a family distinguished in the two Virginias. During that same year he began a business career as a merchant in Reedsville. A partnership was formed with his brother, Mason Watson, under the firm name of "Watson Brothers." That continued from 1877 to 1888, when Mr. Watson retired, the store being continued by his brother until his death a few years since.
Before going out of business Mr. Watson purchased what was known as the James Reed farm, at Reedsville. The farm is a large and valuable one, coming up into the corporate limits of the town. In fact his residence, which at the time he purchased the site was a woodland-stands upon one of the main streets of the town, the farm lying to the north. From that time until the present Mr. Watson has been actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, especially interested in breeding and raising blooded stock. Pole-Angus cattle, Poland China swine, brown Leghorn and Plymouth Rock chickens, are some of his specialties.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Watson are as follows: (1) an infant, born March 21, 1878, which did not live; (2) Forest G .; (3) Otis I .; (4) Pearl E .; (5) Rawley F .; (6) Margaret S .; (7) Nina, born May 4, 1892, who died at the age of 2 years.
Mrs. Watson died April 21, 1894, and Mr. Watson has never re-mar- ried. He has devoted much of his thought to the education of his children in the local schools, keeping the family together although some of them were very young when his wife died. The old home is
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still maintained, and the children, now grown, continue to reside there with their devoted father.
Mr. Watson is of a retiring disposition, and lives a quiet unostenta- tious life. The Watson family is one of the oldest and best known in that part of the county, and its members have always been held high in the esteem of the people. Mr. Watson is a member of no secret organization, and takes no active part in politics, although he is a staunch republican and a warm supporter of every progressive move- ment for the good of his town and native county. Besides his mem- bership in the Board of Education, he was one of the promoters and organizers of the Reedsville bank and is its first president. Mr. Watson affiliates with the Presbyterian faith and has been a generous con- tributor to church building and maintenance for years.
THORNTON TAYLOR.
Thornton Taylor was the eldest son of George W. Taylor, and was born on the old homestead farm on Bull Run October 13, 1851. He was reared a farmer, and given an education in the common schools such as was afforded in that day. He attended school in District No. 1, known as the Friendship School. He remained at home until twenty- five years of age, and virtually took charge of the farm when eleven years old, his father having gone into the army, leaving the cares of the family in his hands.
On March 23, 1876, he married Mary C. Zinn, daughter of W. A. Zinn, generally written A. W. Zinn. In 1879, the young couple moved to the farm where they live now, then a woodland, now a well-cleared piece of land under the highest state of cultivation. The farm was bought in 1874.
Mrs. Taylor's mother was Anna Elizabeth Wright. Her parents located at Harper's Ferry, and when she was about fifteen years of age they moved to Preston county near Reedsville.
The sister to Mrs. Wright's mother died and was buried at sea when the family were on their way to America. Mrs. Taylor's grand- father, Samuel Zinn, died on the old homestead farm near Gladesville, about 1857.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are as follows: (1) Dora Alice, born August 28, 1881 ; (2) Ici Iona, born April 25, 1883; (3) Homer
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Milton, born February 8, 1886. The children have received all the advantages incident to an enlightened community with good schools, and their home is a bright and happy one.
The family is public spirited, are members and active workers in the Presbyterian Church at Reedsville.
MILTON HAROLD TAYLOR.
The history of the Taylor family in Preston county is somewhat legendary. No very definite account can be obtained of this lineage. In descent, however, they are all of English origin.
George Washington, the father of M. Harold Taylor, was born on a farm about six miles northeast of Morgantown, two miles north of a place on Deckers Creek called Dellslow. Twenty years afterward he was married near Reedsville to Eliza Jane, oldest daughter of John and Catherine (Robinson) Emerson. Mr. Emerson was of English descent, and a well to do farmer. The Robinsons were of German extraction. The grandparents of this couple were emigrants from England and Germany, respectively. His mother, Eliza Jane Emerson, was born on Cheat River at what was then known as Jackson's Works, about eight miles north of Morgantown. To this union nine children were born. Thornton, the eldest, was born October 13, 1851 ; Marcellus, 1853; Albert, 1855; Clayton, 1857; Cyrena Jane and Ami-twins, in 1859; Mack, in 1862; Melverna, in 1866, and Milton Harold, October 7, 1869.
Milton Harold Taylor first saw the light of day in the old Taylor homestead four miles east of Masontown. Here he grew up and received practical instruction in the rudiments of a farmer's avocation, and here too be became established on lines of rectitude and honesty in the business and social world for the life to follow.
Not satisfied with the attainments of a common school education, at the age of thirty-three, and after becoming the father of four children, Mr. Taylor sacrificed business and other relations, for the time being, and entered the University of West Virginia at Morgantown, and pur- sued a course of study covering a period of three years, which very much better equipped him for the duties and obligations of a leader among the farmers, which he afterwards became.
In 1893, he located on a fifty-acre farm two miles southwest of
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M. HAROLD TAYLOR.
THE NEW NIK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Masontown. In 1895, two years later, he purchased another farm, and in 1901, moved to the Simon Martin farm, half a mile north of Mason- town, but moved again in April, 1903, to a farm on the Ice's Ferry and Tunnelton Pike road half a mile south of Masontown, which he had purchased from Samuel B. Kirk. This farm was settled about 1776, being one of the first in this part of the country.
Mr. Taylor had little time or inclination to seek political favors, nevertheless, he has been called into public service to some extent. In 1903, being a staunch Republican, he was made Notary Public, and in 1908, elected Justice of the Peace, and in 1912 was elected to the more important position as a member of the Preston County Republican Committee for a term of four years. A position at this time of vast importance to the party.
Socially, Mr. Taylor stands high as a fraternity man. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has held office from Inner Guard to Noble Grand in Preston Lodge No. 143. He was the youngest Past Grand representing a Subordinate Lodge at the session of the Grand Lodge that met at the dedication of the Odd Fel- low Temple at Morgantown in 1894. He also filled the highest office in the Colfax Encampment, when representing the Masontown Encamp- ment at Wheeling in 1909. He has been honored with high positions in the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and as a Knight of Pythias. He is also an active member of the Masonic fraternity at Kingwood, which he joined in 1910, at Kingwood, West Virginia.
In 1898, Mr. Taylor became an active member of the Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, one of the most powerful agricultural societies in existence. He represented Valley Grange No. 359, at a special session called at Buffalo, West Virginia, in 1900 to consider tax reforms in West Virginia, and was one of a committee of five to draft resolutions and recommendations to be submitted to the legislature at the next session. As one of the members of that committee, he enjoyed the confidence of such men as Prof. T. C. Atkinson, Dean of the College of Agriculture, of the State University ; Dr. James H. Stewart, Director af Agricultural Experiment Station, and others, and many of their recommendations became embodied in legislative enactments.
At the National Grange, Lansing, Michigan, held in 1902, Mr. Taylor received the decoration of the degree of Ceres, or the Goddess of Grains, called the Seventh Degree. He was steward of the West Virginia State Grange four years, and served by appointment as its Deputy Master, several years. He also organized many subordinate Granges in different
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parts of the State. In this work it occurred to Mr. Taylor, that farm insurance property belonged to the Granges, and in materializing that idea, helped to organize the Grange Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany, and was the first secretary for several years, a company which saved the farmers of West Virginia many thousands of dollars. He is vice-president of the company at the present time.
Mr. Taylor is a member of the following associations in West Virginia : State Poultry ; State Live Stock; State Sheep Breeders' and Wool Growers; State Horticultural; State Forestry, and the State Dairy, and has held offices in nearly all of these associations. He has also represented several of these associations as a public lecturer. He was employed by the State Board of Agriculture to lecture before the farmers' institutes of the State for several years, and in 1911, by appointment from Governor Glasscock, he represented, with others, the State at a session of the Farmers' National Congress, held at Columbus, Ohio, where he was chosen as one of the vice-presidents of the said congress, and which position he now holds, as a representative of West Virginia, and is at this time President of the West Virginia Branch of the above congress.
Mr. Taylor was one of the organizers, also, of the Masontown Bank. He is a member of the Masontown Board of Trade; a director of the Masontown Telephone Company; and is with his family an active member of the Oak Grove Presbyterian Church.
January 25, 1893, Mr. Taylor was married to Anna Belle Martin. She was a daughter of Simon R. and Sarah A., descendants of one of the oldest settlers in Preston county. Mrs. Taylor was born at Clifton Mills, June, 1869.
Mr. Martin was a soldier in the Third Regiment of the State of Maryland, and served in the Civil War three years. He was captured by the Confederate forces at Harper's Ferry and made a prisoner of war, at one time.
Children born to Mr. and Mrs. Martin are as follows: Howard, Mintie, Victoria, Anna Belle, Granville Ross, Sabina Jane, Otis Judson, and Atlanta Laura.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are: Ferris Adair, born October 10, 1895; Lynn Arden, born October 1, 1896; James Otis, born March 1, 1898; Mabel Ruth, born April 26, 1902; John Martin. Washington, born July 14, 1905; Dorthea Alice, born June 3, 1912.
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GILBERT CLINTON CUPPETT.
The Cuppett family of Preston county are descended largely from Jacob Cuppett, who died in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, near Johns- town, Pennsylvania. His children were: Zalmon, Thomas, George, Jefferson and Margaret. Jefferson Cuppett, born March 18, 1832, mar- ried Margaret Wolfe, September 17, 1857. She was born December 30, 1836, died one year after her husband did, which was in 1895. His death occurred in 1894. He was a farmer, and lived near Bruceton Mills. Their children were Virginia Ellen, born July 22, 1858; Dora Melissa, June 15, 1860; Parson Brownlow, March 18, 1862; Commo- dore Wellington, August 2, 1863; Benjamin Franklin, February 2, 1866; Zura Alice, January 27, 1868, she and Laura Belle being twins; Rufus, March 8, 1870; Gilbert Clinton, February 7, 1872; Orville Dayton, July II, 1874; Letitia Victoria, July 11, 1877; Wilbur Smith, August 21, 1881.
Gilbert C. Cuppett was reared on a farm, and worked his way up to his present creditable position in life. He continued on the farm until after his marriage, and then purchased the stock of goods Charles Spindler had in the undertaking business, and from that time has been the principal undertaker in this part of Preston county. His wife, Miss Josephine Hyde Kimberly, daughter of William and Elizabeth Harvey Kimberly, having been raised up in an undertak- ing establishment as it were, has been of great service to him in that business. She was born October 16, 1872, and was married to Mr. Cuppett October 19, 1898. Her grandmother, on her mother's side, was Debora Forman. Her grandfather, George Kimberly, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He married Katie Tumbelson, and, in 1787, settled in Maryland. Their children were: Hannah Stewart, Rebecca Miles, Susan Kelly, Caroline, John J., William, Bayard P., and Fuller.
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